Johor ready for tourist surge

JOHOR BARU: The 30-day visa-free entry for Chinese and Indian nationals has provided a boost to local tourism, with the hotel association here saying it expected business to keep improving.

Malaysian Association of Hotels Johor chapter chairman Ivan Teo said more rooms were being booked for the festive season here.“With Singapore also implementing the same visa-free initiative for China, we expect to see more tourists from China crossing over to Johor during their visit to Singapore,” he said.

Teo said hoteliers here were also seeing an increase in bookings for the first two days of Chinese New Year.

“Usually, Johor is rather quiet on Chinese New Year and the crowd will only be here in the days leading up to the festival.

“However, this year, we are seeing a lot of bookings for the first two days of the festival. This includes non-Chinese from Singapore who want to spend their holidays here,” he said.

Tourism Johor director Sharil Nizam Abdul Rahim said the move by the federal and state governments to improve public facilities would help in efforts to woo tourists.

“There are several ongoing projects initiated as part of our preparations for Visit Malaysia Year 2026.

“I believe the upgrades, coupled with the visa-free initiatives, will allow us to see more tourists coming to Malaysia,” he said.

Malaysian Tourist Guides Council president Jimmy Leong said the 30-day visa-free initiative for China and India, which kickstarted last December, has yet to result in a surge in arrivals from both countries.

“A possible factor could be because there are segments of tourists from both countries who are still recovering from the economic impact of the pandemic.

“Besides, other countries in the region are also offering visa-free programmes to these tourists. So while we have joined the trend, we also have to compete with the others,” he said.

Leong said in previous years, Chinese New Year was the period when industry players would see a spike in the number of tourists, mainly from China.

“We should have already seen a large crowd coming from China by now. We have told the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry that we are prepared to assist if the need arises,” said Leong, who is also the Johor Tourist Guides Association chairman.